Once a week a few Christian Samburu men travel into the bush to remote areas and tell bible stories to other samburu villages.
Acts 1:8
But ye shall receive power after the Holy Ghost is come upon you; and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."
Are we familiar with this verse? Because I'm pretty sure we found the
uttermost. In fact, I think we found the sign that read "Uttermost". Then we went 45 minutes past that. . . but not on the road. We went in the bushes, through the bushes, on the bushes. I had no idea people actually live that far back in the bush. I don't even know how Stockwell (an elder warrior) found his way back there. I tried to help him out by telling him to "take a right at the 8th bush on the right, then a left at the 4th thorn tree." Guys, this is where children walk around without a stitch of clothes on and people live in houses made of sticks. I was in awe.
In my 2 trips to "the uttermost", I saw so much. When we got to the first village, I wasn't sure what to do. Sure, I wanted to play with the children, but I wasn't sure how. Would they be scared of my white skin. All I thought about was "I can't communicate." Boy I was loving my man, because he didn't stand back thinking about all the negatives. He got right down in the dirt with them and started drawing pictures with a stick in the sand. The little one he sat beside, started giggling. I saw how simple that was to make them smile, so I sat as well. Immediately, a little girl about 7 but a 4 year old in size, crawled into my lap and started rubbing my arms and wiping my skin. I think she thought the white would come off on her fingers because she kept looking at her hands. Then she would pull on my arm hair. They don't have arm hair so that was interesting to her. After she became confident my skin color wasn't wiping off, she worked her way to my watch. On my left arm I was wearing a skinny strip of leather with colorful plastic beads made by a good friends sweet sister. I hadn't taken it off since I put it on almost 6 months ago. The colors told the story of salvation, but I mostly used it as a reminder to pray for Billy and his family while he's in Sudan. The little girl would look at it and spin it around my wrist, carefully looking at each colored bead. It took a while to untie the leather, but as I took it off and tied it on her wrist, I prayed for her salvation. I prayed for her village that they would all see the love of Jesus through the weekly bible stories. I do not know the little girls' name, but it really doesn't matter because I will always remember her smile.
The second village we visited in the bush was a bit more of a hike. As we were walking, some naked little boys came out of the bush. One ran right up to Chris and grabbed his hand. Folks, it doesn't get much greater than that. They walked together hand in hand without a word. . . all the way to the village. This act needed no translator.
Sadly, as we came up on the village, we were told that they had just finished a female circumcision. I was the only female in the group other than a samburu woman who spoke no English. Someone from our group handed me his camera and said "When you go see the girls, take some pictures with my camera." I was offended. I told him I wasn't going to into their home and I wasn't going to take pictures of them. I was almost in tears just thinking about what they were going through. I kept telling myself they don't know any different. They have been doing this for so many years. Finally, after being asked by a few samburu women, I hesitantly agreed to go to the girls. The only condition being that my new samburu friend comes with me. There is no way to adequately describe going into their house/ hut. When I crawled in there were people sitting all around the inside. There was a small loft directly in front of me with a curtain. Now, keep in mind this: in walks white girl with my new friend that doesn't speak a lick of English. I'm in a tiny stick house with 15 people who are all talking to me, but I have no clue what they are saying. My friend kept motioning to me, holding up and bending her index finger. I concluded she wanted my camera, so I pulled it out of my pocket and handed it to her. An old woman in the hut pulled back the curtains. There were 2 beautiful young girls smiling back at me. My friend handed me my camera and motioned me to take a picture. I did, and I showed them what they looked like. I think it was the first time they had ever had their pictures taken. They were so proud that now, their people now considered them “a women”.
The most amazing part about that whole trip is that we were able to be a part of taking Christ to people who have literally never heard. Most Americans have at least heard, then they get to make their choice. These people have never even had the chance to hear. We feel so fortunate that God allowed us to be a part of that.
Aren't these houses fascinating? I know why they are so tiny, so they can fit inside the tiny door.
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